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Jai and Welcome!

For years Mercedes witnessed family and friends work long hours, hunched over computers and cell phones, eating food that was not so good for them, and losing more and more time for themselves. The time to take care of the self and in return other people in their lives seemed to grow smaller and smaller. Then the unthinkable happened: she became one of those people! It pained her to see herself and people in her community live like this and something told her “another way is possible…” and that’s when The People’s Yoga Project began. She took her years of organizing experience, her love of yoga, and her passion to support her community and turned them into one.

The People’s Yoga Project (P.Y.P) mission is to encourage all people to explore yoga and turn it into what they wish to experience, regardless of weight, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, religion, or any idea that you have in your mind that says “I can’t do yoga”. P.Y.P helps to create a space in which you see yourself in yoga. On countless magazine covers and flyers we see slender, light-skinned bodies wearing expensive clothing, with both of their feet crossed behind their heads 🙂 this is one version of what yoga looks like in the United States today but there are also many many others waiting for you to embrace them! We hope you will join us as we continue to pump the explosion of the joys of yoga-including compassion for the self, others, and the planet- throughout the world and right here in Vermont, all the while remembering the mantra: yoga for the people-all people.

In addition to Mercedes’ 4+ years of practicing yoga, in March of 2012 she completed her 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Certification at Kripalu School of Yoga to help this dream become a reality.